techSunday, September 16, 2007
New Lappy
My old laptop "Kate" is starting to show her age. Other than making a lot of noise with the massive cooling fans running all the time, she overheats and dies a lot.
So, I got a new one. I spent 2 hours researching current technology to see what's available, what I want, and what is the best balance of price and features. I came up with a list of 5 or 6 current models of various brands that I would settle for.
I wanted to get it now. I travel a lot and if I had one shipped somewhere, it might be many weeks before I could get it in my hands. I did most of my research on Office Depot's website. They seemed to have a pretty good selection and pretty good prices. So I located a local store and drove there.
The first Office Depot only carried one of the models that was on my list (even though they all were available on the store's website), but they were out of stock on that one. They checked their computer and found one at another store in the area. I got directions and drove there. When I got there, they were out as well. But right next door was Circuit City. I hate that place, but I'm desperate for a new lappy.
Circuit City managed to validate my opinion of the store yet again. They were busy, but I caught one of the sales associates and pointed out the laptop I wanted to buy. I'm not buying a $15 mouse here, I'm buying a $1200 laptop, but I never saw that associate again. Then I was ignored for about 2 hours while half a dozen employees passed through - obviously already engrossed in some serious business. So I played with the laptops. I may as well have been invisible, so I went ahead and had at the machines. I changed settings, added user accounts, opened and closed lids, turned over machines (none too gently mind you), fiddled with switches and covers, and rebooted a couple machines. I didn't have any live CDs on me or I could have booted linux on all the machines in the section (I booted the Knoppix live cd on a machine at Bestbuy once - in copy-to-ram mode so's I could take the cd with me and leave the machine in the linux environment).
Finally, I got another associate to notice me and pointed out the lappy I wanted. They were out of stock. I pointed out my second, and only other choice. And they were out of stock. No, they couldn't sell the display models. So I walked out of the store.
Before the guy checked on the availability of the first machine, he was already into his spiel to convince me to buy the $450 extended warranty and their software pack. I was like, "No." He was like, "You need anti-virus." I said, "I already got it." He wanted to be sure I could handle the install. I said I could. He wanted to be sure I could handle the install on Windows Vista. I said I could. Then I mentioned that I was interested in Adobe Lightroom if they carried that. He didn't know. And that's about the time he figured out they didn't actually have any laptops in stock.
Bestbuy was just across the street (yes. Office Depot and Circuit City on one side of the street and Bestbuy on the other. I parked at Office Depot and didn't have to get back in the car to check the other stores). Bestbuy had a better selection and more competent sales associates. I was ignored for a while there as well, but it gave me a chance to check out the new MacBooks which I would be interested in if they weren't a bit overpriced - and the speakers seemed to be pretty crappy (except on the pro model). But I got all 3 display models playing the same song in iTunes with pretty good sync and all at full volume. I was a bit rougher with the notebook PCs here than at CCity and eventually got a sales associate to actually try to sell something - hm, they really must have been busy because you usually can't walk past a Bestbuy without being accosted by a sales associate trying to sell you something. So I pointed out my first choice. It happened to be in the "Business Center" section of the store. The guy was like, "I don't know if I can sell you that, you may have to buy it through the business center - but I'll check." He checked - with the assistance of another associate and they eventually managed to decipher the labels on the box to determine that they did have it in stock and could sell it to me after all. They weren't too pushy with the service plan which is pretty strange for BBuy. After CCity, I was all prepared with "I definitely do not need the extended warranty as I intend to void the warranty as soon as I get this puppy home!", but I didn't have to use it because they weren't too pushy.
I ended up with an HP Compaq 6510b (I like how HP acquired Compaq and now uses the name as a model name). Core 2 Duo T7100 with 2 gigg-a-ram. I already swapped out the 160 GB hdd with the 250 gigger that I had in an external enclosure (I was sure to get a lappy with SATA for this purpose). Before the brain transplant, I cleaned out all the pre-installed software except for the fingerprint scanner stuff (dang is that thing surprisingly awesome). The HP fingerprint software doesn't look as cool as what was on the Sony Vaio at CCity, which I investigated thoroughly. I read some description that said the fingerprint scanner could double as a scroll-wheel-type-thing, but the HP software does not have this feature. Though it does show a pretty cool graphic of your fingerprint as you scan it during the setup - it actually shows a picture of the fingerprint it just scanned rather than a generic fingerprint image - which I thought was pretty cool.
I did manage to derail the DVD drive tray within 20 minutes of ownership. No worries though - I got it back together.
I have Gentoo Linux installing on the 250 gig Hdd right now. It should be finished in a couple of days.
So, I got a new one. I spent 2 hours researching current technology to see what's available, what I want, and what is the best balance of price and features. I came up with a list of 5 or 6 current models of various brands that I would settle for.
I wanted to get it now. I travel a lot and if I had one shipped somewhere, it might be many weeks before I could get it in my hands. I did most of my research on Office Depot's website. They seemed to have a pretty good selection and pretty good prices. So I located a local store and drove there.
The first Office Depot only carried one of the models that was on my list (even though they all were available on the store's website), but they were out of stock on that one. They checked their computer and found one at another store in the area. I got directions and drove there. When I got there, they were out as well. But right next door was Circuit City. I hate that place, but I'm desperate for a new lappy.
Circuit City managed to validate my opinion of the store yet again. They were busy, but I caught one of the sales associates and pointed out the laptop I wanted to buy. I'm not buying a $15 mouse here, I'm buying a $1200 laptop, but I never saw that associate again. Then I was ignored for about 2 hours while half a dozen employees passed through - obviously already engrossed in some serious business. So I played with the laptops. I may as well have been invisible, so I went ahead and had at the machines. I changed settings, added user accounts, opened and closed lids, turned over machines (none too gently mind you), fiddled with switches and covers, and rebooted a couple machines. I didn't have any live CDs on me or I could have booted linux on all the machines in the section (I booted the Knoppix live cd on a machine at Bestbuy once - in copy-to-ram mode so's I could take the cd with me and leave the machine in the linux environment).
Finally, I got another associate to notice me and pointed out the lappy I wanted. They were out of stock. I pointed out my second, and only other choice. And they were out of stock. No, they couldn't sell the display models. So I walked out of the store.
Before the guy checked on the availability of the first machine, he was already into his spiel to convince me to buy the $450 extended warranty and their software pack. I was like, "No." He was like, "You need anti-virus." I said, "I already got it." He wanted to be sure I could handle the install. I said I could. He wanted to be sure I could handle the install on Windows Vista. I said I could. Then I mentioned that I was interested in Adobe Lightroom if they carried that. He didn't know. And that's about the time he figured out they didn't actually have any laptops in stock.
Bestbuy was just across the street (yes. Office Depot and Circuit City on one side of the street and Bestbuy on the other. I parked at Office Depot and didn't have to get back in the car to check the other stores). Bestbuy had a better selection and more competent sales associates. I was ignored for a while there as well, but it gave me a chance to check out the new MacBooks which I would be interested in if they weren't a bit overpriced - and the speakers seemed to be pretty crappy (except on the pro model). But I got all 3 display models playing the same song in iTunes with pretty good sync and all at full volume. I was a bit rougher with the notebook PCs here than at CCity and eventually got a sales associate to actually try to sell something - hm, they really must have been busy because you usually can't walk past a Bestbuy without being accosted by a sales associate trying to sell you something. So I pointed out my first choice. It happened to be in the "Business Center" section of the store. The guy was like, "I don't know if I can sell you that, you may have to buy it through the business center - but I'll check." He checked - with the assistance of another associate and they eventually managed to decipher the labels on the box to determine that they did have it in stock and could sell it to me after all. They weren't too pushy with the service plan which is pretty strange for BBuy. After CCity, I was all prepared with "I definitely do not need the extended warranty as I intend to void the warranty as soon as I get this puppy home!", but I didn't have to use it because they weren't too pushy.
I ended up with an HP Compaq 6510b (I like how HP acquired Compaq and now uses the name as a model name). Core 2 Duo T7100 with 2 gigg-a-ram. I already swapped out the 160 GB hdd with the 250 gigger that I had in an external enclosure (I was sure to get a lappy with SATA for this purpose). Before the brain transplant, I cleaned out all the pre-installed software except for the fingerprint scanner stuff (dang is that thing surprisingly awesome). The HP fingerprint software doesn't look as cool as what was on the Sony Vaio at CCity, which I investigated thoroughly. I read some description that said the fingerprint scanner could double as a scroll-wheel-type-thing, but the HP software does not have this feature. Though it does show a pretty cool graphic of your fingerprint as you scan it during the setup - it actually shows a picture of the fingerprint it just scanned rather than a generic fingerprint image - which I thought was pretty cool.
I did manage to derail the DVD drive tray within 20 minutes of ownership. No worries though - I got it back together.
I have Gentoo Linux installing on the 250 gig Hdd right now. It should be finished in a couple of days.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
I had to edit some kernel source to get my camera to work. It wasn't much. There's a bug in Nikon's camera firmware. It didn't make any difference in older kernels, but the recent ones handle usb storage or scsi emulation or something a bit differently so Nikon's bug is preventing the device from working properly. I searched bug reports and everything to find a solution. Most of the Nikon SLRs use the same guts, so the problem exists in all of them. The D50, D100, D70, D70s, D200, etc are all already handled properly in the kernel, but not the D40. It was a simple fix. I just had to copy the code from one of the other camera's section and change the product ID to that of the D40 along with the name and all that.
Now to compile and see if it worked.
I should probably submit a formal bug report somewhere, but that's too much work.
Now to compile and see if it worked.
I should probably submit a formal bug report somewhere, but that's too much work.